When a brand replaced a model with a new one, you usually expect the new model to be at least as good as the old one. VE disappointed us this time. The Monk Plus lacks clarity and brightness, compared to the classic Monk, and completely lost that special balance between the lows, mids and highs that the classic earphones had. Either the drivers are different, or the tuning is poor. Either way, the Monk Plus are great for the price, but I would no longer consider them the best bargain when it comes to quality budget earbuds.

I would urge you to consider the Headroom MS16 as the best resplacement for the classic Monk, for similarly affordable price.

I find most earbuds quite uncomfortable, and they tend to put pressure on my ears after a while. These earbuds' housings are very generic and used for many other earbuds, so there isn't anything special about the lack of ergonomics with these earbuds.

Lows / Bass

The first thing I noticed, as odd as it may seem, the bass actually sounds somewhat shallower and less impactful that what you would get with Monk. Kicks are colder and lack that vibrating bass to which I was accustomed.

Mids / Vocals

The second thing I noticed was the fatter, more honky mids, especially noticebale in male vocals. The overemphasis in the 400Hz-1kHz range, accompanied with a significant lack of definition in the upper-midrange and a more severe harmonic distortion than the classic Monk resulted in a rather unsatisfying sound. Snare drums sound more tinny and metallic and loud to the point of being fatiguing. The original sparkle is almost completely gone, the S sound is under-pronounced, and the overall sound lacks clarity. The issue seems to be even worse on low-powered devices.

Highs / Treble

The weak spot for these earphones are especially the highs, and that's something that's very easy to notice. The sparkle and crispiness of the original Monk is gone. Most of the treble is recessed and they are darkish in tone. On weak-powered sources, they sound even worse.